Any business should welcome competition
Having worked on the mainland (California) both in private business and teaching computer science, I find it amazing that the local airlines here are angry at go! for quelling competition.
Our shelf life, if we did not keep up with the competition, was about one year. It is all about innovation and thinking outside the box.
Many businesses in Hawaii seem to despise competition when in the end it makes everyone achieve higher goals. I would commend go! Airlines for pushing the envelope and assisting Hawaii residents in their interisland travels. It means much to many of us. You go, go!
Paul McGuirk
Kaneohe
Watada's actions are those of a coward
Our brave military men and women are proud to serve America and her people.
If 1st Lt. Ehren Watada was sincere concerning his voice against the credibility of the war, he should have spoken out, taken action and/or resigned prior to notification of his deployment to the Middle East.
The fact that Watada did not speak out against the president and the war until his deployment orders were received reflects that he is un-American and a coward. He is a disgrace to the brave and honorable men and women who wear their uniforms (past and present).
Maile Nicholas
Honolulu
Money should not guide foreign policy
Mililani contributor Ron Rhetrik (
Letters, Dec. 4) seems to believe we can win the war on terror with a bit of judiciously applied bribery. Indeed he seems to view war as a financial balance sheet that can be subjected to finely jiggered numerical cost-benefit analyses as a way to determine strategy.
The last high government official to take this approach to war was the abysmally unfit individual an equally unfit president (JFK) plucked from Edsel obscurity at Ford Motor Company and made his secretary of defense: Robert Strange MacNamara. Mac and his whiz kid bean counters coupled with Kennedy's gutless indecisiveness plunged us into a war that ultimately cost almost 60,000 American lives. It was not until a Republican, Richard Nixon, took office eight years later that America began to have a coherent foreign policy aimed at extracting our troops and freeing our POWs, both of which Nixon accomplished before being hounded from office on the pretext of an unsuccessful attempt at low-level political espionage conducted by inadequately supervised munchkin staffers on the re-election committee.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but war is by its nature a contest of wills, not wallets. The path to victory is not the same as the path of least resistance. Courage, not expedience, is called for.
Thomas E. Stuart
Vietnam veteran
Kapaau, Hawaii
Drinking-driving stats tell another story
So 50.71 percent of all Hawaii traffic fatalities were "alcohol-related" (
Star-Bulletin, Dec. 1). That means that only 49.29 percent were not "alcohol-related."
Wouldn't it be just as accurate for the sub-head to read: "Hawaii ranks *best* among states for non-alcohol-related traffic deaths"? Our nondrinking drivers are the safest of all the states!
John M. Flanigan
Kaneohe
Why didn't gov clean up everyone's trash?
In response to
Richard Borreca's Dec. 3 "On Politics" column: Gov. Linda Lingle is a clever politician who described Bush in 2001 as the "greatest president in our history." Has she studied history? I believe that she has wasted her bully pulpit in favor of amassing her $6 million fund for her re-election.
Her bully pulpit could have been used to promote clean and beautiful Islands, instead of the disgraceful trash we see everywhere. Litter, bulky items, abandoned cars foul our islands, and she could have done something about it in the past four years while she was collecting the biggest campaign war chest in history.
Not her kuleana? She could have made it so and done something about it.
Nancy Bey Little
Makiki
FBI inspires ordinary people to do right
I am standing up in my neighborhood and community now. I could not do that before. I am reporting suspicious activity and looking out for others. I could not do that before. I felt I could not stand as I should with the way crime was so unchallenged. Then I started noticing how the FBI was bringing down the leaders of organized crime and people who are compromising leadership positions -- people in leadership positions who were betraying the ones who trusted and followed their leadership.
It was getting to the point where not only did the FBI catch someone in their very office passing on information to organized crime (Star-Bulletin, Nov. 29), but they showed that no one is above the laws of the land. Pick up the phone -- and yes, it can be scary -- and call and speak to them. Tell them that we need them to keep doing what they are doing, making us look at ourselves and caring for one another while we can see each other till tomorrow.
No leadership of "making a difference" -- not only in Hawaii but in America -- has established itself as the FBI. They are the light at the other end of the tunnel.
A nation without integrity is a self-deceiving world that time has proven over and over again cannot stand.
Marty Osborn
Honolulu
Smokers under attack by P.C. nannies
If America wants to live up to its claim of "the land of the free," then business owners should be able to make their own decisions, as should private individuals. Who asked government or our fellow citizens to appoint themselves as our nannies? The second-hand smoke propaganda is just that much rubbish. The real objective is to force people to submit and conform.
This trend is affecting not only the rights of smokers but the rights of individuals in this country and state. Civil liberties are slowly being eroded by puritan and politically correct agendas. The majority of anti-tobacco studies are funded by major pharmaceuticals or similar parties, who have a financial interest in the outcome of these studies. Millions are at stake (patch, gum, inhalers, pills) for these firms, not to mention the counseling and medical attention necessary that smokers require due to the constant harassment, belittlement and self-flagellation.
I encourage all smokers to boycott the big cigarette manufacturers because they refuse to stand up for their customers who face the anti-smoking Nazis. I also encourage all citizens (smokers and nonsmokers alike) who value their individual freedom and liberty to choose how to live their life, to educate themselves about these meddling groups and their agendas.
All you liberals who walked the streets in the 60s and 70s for individual freedom-- where are you now? Doesn't anyone see what is happening?
Andrea Graham
Kailua
[ NEW YEAR'S WISHES ]
Readers, tell us about 2007
THE tick of the clock from December 2006's last second to January 2007's first is really no different from any other. Nonetheless, it marks a turn of time regarded as a genesis -- a beginning.
The Star-Bulletin would like readers to submit their thoughts, ideas and hopes for 2007. Tell us what you would like the year to bring or what you expect 2007 will be like. Feel free to get the family involved -- we'd like to hear from our younger readers, too. And you're welcome to express your feelings in a photograph or drawing rather than words, if you prefer.
Comments and observations may be personal or global, material or spiritual -- whatever is on your mind. We will publish your words on New Year's Day, along with some photos and other artwork you send.
E-mail us at newyear@starbulletin.com, or send mail to:
Editorial Dept., Star-Bulletin,
7 Waterfront Plaza, 500 Ala Moana, Suite 210,
Honolulu, HI, 96813
We look forward to hearing from you.